Inactivation of <i>Cryptosporidium</i> Oocysts in a Pilot-Scale Ozone Bubble-Diffuser Contactor. I: Model Development

Abstract

A mathematical model was developed to simulate the performance of a pilot-scale ozone bubble-diffuser column. The reactor hydrodynamics was represented with the axial dispersion reactor model. An analytical solution was developed for the liquid and gas phase ozone mass balances in which dissolved ozone decomposes by first-order kinetics. Numerical approximations were provided for the mass balances for viable microorganisms and the more general case of dissolved ozone decomposition through a second-order reaction with fast ozone demand in natural organic matter. Model components required to predict the liquid and gas phase ozone concentration and viable microorganism number density profiles throughout the bubble-diffuser column included input parameters (liquid and gas flow rates, influent gas and dissolved ozone concentrations, temperature, and countercurrent or cocurrent operation mode), empirical correlations (dispersion number, volumetric mass transfer coefficient, Henry’s law constant), and batch or semibatch kinetic information (ozone decomposition rate constants and fast-ozone demand, and microorganism inactivation lag phase and rate constant). A sample model run for the case of first-order ozone decomposition revealed that the analytical and numerical solutions were practically identical.